A Family Tradition, Since 1860

Don Adan Coffee Has Passed Through Eight Generations Of The Barrios Family For Over 155 Years, Making Don Adan Coffee One Of The Finest Stories Of Family, Coffee, Tradition And Custom.

Captain General Gerardo Barrios Introduced The Commercial Planting Of Coffee In El Salvador During His Term As President Between 1859-63. By 1880, Coffee Had Become The Dominant Export Commodity Throughout The Region.

Coffee plantations spread rapidly across Central America and into Honduras where the blend of tropical climate, rainfall and mountain ranges proved ideal for the farming of the fine arabica coffee tree.
Our family has been growing coffee in Honduras since 1860.

The Barrios family plantation is situated high in the mountains of southwestern Honduras near the small town of Marcala. In 1893, Don Jesus Arellano pioneered the exporting of our washed coffee to Europe; Don Adán Coffee was born.

Our business name holds particular significance; Don is a title used in Spanish and Italian as an indication of respect for the bearer and Adán was the name of our patriarch who expanded the family’s holdings. He was a doctor, who turned to coffee farming in order to provide free medical treatment.

In 1997, Gerardo Adán Barrios and his son, Gerardo Adán Barrios Junior imported the first shipment of high quality Honduran coffee into Sydney, Australia.

At this time, most commercial operations in Sydney were focused on un-roasted coffee, known as green beans. Our first step was to make our beans available to existing gourmet roasters within the Sydney area.
As we explored the Sydney market it became increasingly evident that most roasters were creating blends to satisfy commercial needs rather than achieving coffee excellence.

In 1998, we participated in the Aroma Coffee Festival at The Rocks. Through this experience, we became aware of our rapidly growing number of followers and mail-order customers. The public was embracing our coffee.

In mid 1999, we embarked on a search to find a premises for our own retail outlet. We had established our niche within the specialty coffee market and excellence driven operators.

Don Adán Coffee House opened its doors in September 1999. Between 1999 and 2005 we were honoured with a range of business and coffee awards and consistently appeared in Sydney’s food guides.